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and respect all that you see. She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
She's on the Money.
She's on the Money. Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast of les you be pervy about other people's money habits for educational purposes, of course, welcome back to another one of our money diaries, brought to you by sky Wealth, where we get to talk with one of our incredible She's on the Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because this week I got an email and it sounded exactly
like this, dear, she's on the money. I went from zero financial literacy and around sixty thousand dollars of personal debt to a complete money makeover and getting my life together. I paid off all of my debt, built a healthy emergency fund, and started investing. I even moved to a rural location to meet my money goals. I thought I had everything sorted and was excited for a long and financially comfortable maternity leave until my baby's unexpected metas costs
completely decimated my savings and emergency funds. I had to pivot, but I am currently clawing my way back to getting our finances under control again. Money Diarist, Hello, that sounds elite but also just so stressful. Are you okay? Is baby okay?
She is now. She's doing amazing now. But it was a scary twelve months, that's for sure. But yeah, it's been a whirlwind. But yeah, hearing it back, it sounds like a lot.
Yeah, it sounds iconic. Sorry, and I know that you're like, oh, like, I've had to pivot, currently clawing my way back and that's exactly how it feels. But like you had the emergency fund and the savings to get you through that, and that's what they're for. As much as we don't like having to rebuild because we feel like, oh my goodness, I'm starting from scratch, but like that's that's the point, Like that's what they're for. You didn't go into debt, and that's so exciting.
I know, it is such a privilege to have had that there so that I could look after her in the best way possible and give her the best up life. So yeah, I'm just very very thankful that I had an emergency fund.
All right, So let's dive into it a little bit more Before I get to ask you about your money story. I want to know what grade would you give your money habits from A through to AIRF if I asked you to give them a grade.
I'm going to go with a B, which feels very safe. But I'm starting from an absolute f. Okay.
I mean I could see that when you said I'm from zero financial literacy and had sixty thousand dollars worth of personal debt, which I can't wait to get into. Like I love the nitty gritty of where people have come but like, I can see why you feel that. I can see why you feel that, and I do feel like b is safe. But we're going to learn a little bit more about it. So my favorite question in the entire world, money diarist, Can you tell me a little bit more about your money story?
Sure? So, I guess we'll start with my childhood. My parents didn't come from money. They would have come from very firmly working class families, but they worked really hard and ensured that when I was growing up we were in a very comfortable, middle class family. I had somewhat of a sense that money might be tight, but we were never stressed about money. My parents made us feel comfortable. They sent us to good schools, and you know, we
didn't have a fancy house or anything. But if there was ever anything we wanted in terms of hobbies or interests, they would make that work. Like, for example, I was an elite athlete growing up, and I know now as an adult that would have been a huge cost to go through training and travel around Australia to compete. But they never once made that feel like a financial burden. So they were amazing in that aspect.
And you literally never know, like when you're a kid, you're like, oh, I'll go to training or do x YZ. You just you've got no idea. And also, sorry, your parents must love you so much because that's such a sacrifice in terms of time, not just money, like you can throw money at stuff like that, but like, sorry, you're a teenager. I'm assuming at this point the fact that they probably had to go to every training. You're not driving yourself there.
They did, though, five o'clock starts at the pool were a lot, but yet they were amazing. And my childhood was a bit different in the fact as well that my mum took on the breadwinner role in my family and my dad took on those more traditional caregiving roles. So I was always modeled really strong female leadership and yeah, my mum's pretty amazing. So that was really cool growing up that way, which was very different from my friends who all had just a very different family set up.
But yeah, so we never went without. But my parents were also very traditional in the fact we didn't talk about money. They didn't teach us anything about finances. So when I became an adult and went to UNI and started working casually as UNI students do. I had no idea what to do with money, and I spent every single cent I earned and lived paycheck to paycheck, which was same quitely fun like I had a great time.
Yeah, same, but it I guess.
I always had the sense that I wasn't earning enough to save, so what was the point. I think I was very all or nothing, Like if I can't put five hundred dollars away this week, why would I bother? Yeah? So I didn't learn anything. And I always thought when I started my career and earned more, I would save more. But as I learned that saving doesn't just magically happen suddenly because you grow up something you actually have to learn,
which I didn't know at the time. So when I started working full time, I just spent all that money too. And I think I was a very typical post a child of lifestyle creep. I just bought more things, I went out more. I very much fell into that statistic that you talk about that most Australians don't have access to five hundred dollars, And despite having an okay wage, there was no way I would ever have access to five hundred dollars just at the job of a hat.
So that's just how I lived paycheck to paycheck with no savings.
I feel like that's so relatable, literally just to me, because that's what I did. I feel like I had this idea that when you become an adult, your shit gets together, right, I just know, yeah, well yeah, yeah, yeah, Like I won't have any day. It would be fine. I'm probably gonna like find Prince Charmie, we're getting married. Well, just buy a house somehow. It's all going to work out because a big girl's salary, like your full time salary, it's going to be heaps of money. That'll be fine.
And it was for my impulse spending and shopping and convenient time. It was great. It's fantastic. But my husband is much the same. Unfortunately, he's pretty textbook ADHD and he's very spendy. So we had a great time together.
Oh good, Well, at least you had someone to enjoy it with, you know, yeah yeah, shared hobbies and all that.
So it got to the point in twenty eighteen my husband was still at UNI and I was working full time, and we bought our first home together, which was great. Despite having tried to save up a house deposit. We really had very minimal savings. We were just lucky that we came across this amazing mortgage broker who really knew her stuff and was able to do all the things to get us into our first home as quickly as possible,
which was amazing. But again I didn't really learn a lesson from that, did I. And I think in hindsight, we did make a good choice in the fact that back then the interest rates were really low and the bank was willing to offer us quite a bit more than what we took, so we were very cautious and took well under what they offered us.
Okay, so she had some level of financial literacy, yeah, but more like a gut feeling, more like I feel like that might be biting off more than we can choot. Were you in personal debt at that point? Like, at what point did the sixty thousand dollars kicking? Because I not yet. I was about to say, you can't have been in personal debt to the amount of sixty grand and get a mortgage.
No, no, no, this is where we head downhill a bit. So I was just lucky that I earned enough to get by. So No, in hindsight, I'm glad we borrowed a lot less because when the interest rates rose, we would have been in a fair bit of trouble because it's at this point that my financial decisions got much worse. So we had the house, and then I decided that I absolutely needed a new car.
Oh yeah, well, I mean new house, new car. It just makes sense, makes sense. You're an adult now, you've got a mortgage. Yeah, I'll help you justify any bad money decision, honestly, Like, I'm very much adoer as I say, not as I do. You're not asking me for advice right now, so I'll just help you validate that, because that's exactly what I used to be.
Like.
Is it a good idea? Absolutely not, but you know what in our brains, like, I get it, Queen, I did the same thing.
Absolute girls girl, Thank you, Victoria.
Yes, so got the new car.
So twenty four thousand dollars on a car that I didn't need. And then me and my husband, well fiance at the time, decided to plan our wedding and that seemed like a really big financial goal. Again, I didn't know how to save, so I thought I would do what everyone else seems to do. And I applied for a credit card.
Perfect.
Perfect. I didn't know anything about credit cards. I knew they were vaguely bad. My parents never had them growing up, but all my friends had them. They didn't really talk about what their limits were or how they used them. I just knew that they had them, so I thought it couldn't be that bad. So I applied for a credit card, again not knowing anything. When you apply, there
were two boxes that you could have checked. One was to set a limit for your credit card, and the other was to let the bank assess and decide on the limit. And so I just ticked that one, not thinking much about it. And I think I very naively thought the bank would have my best interests at heart and they would never lend me money that I couldn't handle.
No, why would they do that. That would be irresponsible lending.
Yeah. Never. And this just before all the Royal Commission stuff. So the whole process of getting that credit card was alarmingly easy. And it came in the mail a few weeks later with a thirty thousand dollar limit on it.
Oh money, whim like, look how good that is? You probably went, Wow, that's so nice that's so helpful. This is going to be perfect for our wedding.
I literally did that. I like, it's so terrifying to me how little I understood when I saw that. I actually thought it was so awesome. I was like, look, how good the bank thinks I am at money. That's incredible. And I just went a bit mad with my credit card. So I ended up putting an entire wedding on a credit card. And our wedding was overseas, so we did six weeks of travel, so that went on there too, did some stuff for the house, and very very easily and quickly maxed out that limit.
Oh good, So where were we shopping? Like I need to know, like, if you're going to tell me that we've got thirty thousand dollars worth of personal credit, wheen didn't we go?
Like?
Were we shopping at Ikea? Were we? Because I feel like the second you have a thirty thousand dollars limit, you're like, Juna, what we should actually get quality items because this is our first home. You did that, didn't you a little bit?
I definitely had a very luxury holiday for six weeks all my wedding, so that was good. But yeah, I did buy things I wouldn't have bought normally because I was just happy to tap that and didn't feel like my money. And the scary thing was I knew so little about money it didn't even stress me out. Like if someone handed me that credit card now with that limit on it, I would be sweating, like absolutely not.
But at the time, I just I just went for it because I thought that was normal because all my friends had credit cards and I assumed that's probably what they were working with too. For then after that, I did some house reno stuff and we got solar panels which they let me put on like an after pay platform for ten thousand dollars.
How good. You didn't even need to use a credit card for that one. So great. Yeah, so we can just add that on the side. Now at forty.
Thirty thousand plus twenty four thousand plus a ten thousand, so up to sixty four thousand.
You know what, why stop there? Why did you stop there? Crazy?
Crazy? Yeah, So at this point my debt repayments were pretty hefty.
Was this a conversation that you were having with your husband? So you've got this credit card and like we're setting up the house, how involved. Was your at the time fiance slash husband in these conversations. Was he aware of the debt, how did he feel about it? Or were you just both two pieces in a pod and you were like, let's just set up our lives.
This is great, just two pieces in a pod.
Really. Yeah, it happens that way, doesn't it. Yeah.
Again, I'm looking back, I am so alarmed and stressed out by at how little we were bothered by it. It just seemed very normal and okay, but.
You don't know what you don't know like, and you don't know what's coming either. And I'm about to probably hear that there was a chaos moment or a come to Jesus moment, or like a moment where you're like, actually, what the hell have we done? Oh?
Yes, yes, it came in a big way. So I had my first child, my son, in twenty twenty one, and a really big value of mine is that I wanted to be home with him for at least the first twelve months, and I had these visions of, you know, just being at home with him and having great time and not spending any money because we'll just hang out
at home. Again. So naive, I think you think matt leave is going to be one thing, and then actually it turns out that maternity leave just really magnifies any tendencies or habits that you already have just so much more Like, I love my son so much, but he looking back, I understand he was not an easy baby. He cried a lot, He needed to be held by only me twenty four to seven. He didn't sleep. I wanted to be out of the house all the time.
I went shopping all the time. I needed coffee dates for my mental health.
You know, oh, I know, I at thousand percent agree with those coffee dates. I think that those are a mental health investment.
You just need to So I can't even be mad at myself because there's no way I could have stayed at home with this child who only stopped screaming when we were walking around a shopping center. And it's really easy to justify buying things for your children.
Oh, don't even I thought I was the Do you know who I was before I had a baby. I was the perfect parent. I was the perfect parent before I became a parent. And I was like, no, I'm not going to spoil my child with too many things. I'm not going to like spend more than necessary. And then Harvey points at one thing and I'm like, oh, it's all yours, bab, you can have it. Yep, worries, Well am I becoming I'm teaching him nothing.
I'm the exact same and again, perfect parent beforehand. And then oh yeah, I just I blew through our money so fast, so fast, so I had to return to work much earlier than I ever wanted to, which was devastating for me. And I sort of looked at my son and I thought, I have no money, and I can't give you the childhood that my parents gave me, where they could let me do anything I wanted to do or be I wanted to be. Because I just don't have the money, then I don't have the freedom
to do that. And that was really shocking to me. And that's not the life that I wanted for him. And I also looked around at all my friends who were achieving these big life goals and that seems so unachievable to me too. And I'm very lucky I've managed to surround myself with amazing women, Like they're so smart, they're so empowered, and they're so driven and they're doing all these really cool things. So I sort of asked them.
I was like, how are you doing this? And my friend's really good at money, so she put me onto She's on the money.
Oh really, is that where it started? Yes, it is.
I'm not your typical barefoot investor into other things. I went straight to you, guys.
I feel like lots of people went barefoot and then straight into this, or they were introduced by a friend. Like complete side note, but I often so in our Facebook group when people join, I can see how they've joined, and I'll see their application and it will say like their email or whatever, and like I still go through it and often says referred by, and it'll say like someone else has been int like your friend invited you to the group and then you like popp your email
in and you're waiting for access. And I'm like, it's literally the cutest part of it, because I'm like, it's not just you've looked it up and you've come to find sheese on the money. It's like one of your mates has been join this here. I'll just send it to you and then that it tells me, which is so cute. But I would say most people join our group because a friend has been like, have you seen this group? Do you want to do money with me?
That is so cool. That must be so exciting for you to see this little like empire that you've built.
It's the coolest thing ever.
I'm like such a convert as well. I know I've done the same to friends. I'm like, you need to get on this. So yeah, I'm like Sad spreading the word of Victoria.
Spreading the good word. I love this And one day, when I work out how to make it a proper cult, I'll let you know. But till then, we'll just work on our financial literacy. Yeah, but yeah, no.
So I just obsessively consumed all of the podcasts from the very beginning. The books did all that, and I started just putting all your tips into practice, and it was so like liberating, so eye opening. I always had thought I was bad at money, but I'm not bad at money. I just didn't know. It's like I don't know how to fly a plane. I would never tell someone I'm bad at flying a plane. I would say
I actually don't know how to do that. So I don't know why I'm so hard on myself about money, because I'm not bad at money, I just didn't know exactly.
And for those of you listening along, please skip back fifteen seconds and then listen to that again, because that is exactly what I'm trying to teach you. And it's kind of like, why are we crucifying our past selves? Like you're in sixty four thousand dollars worth of debt. I didn't get close to that. I got forty, So like, you've blown me out of the water, queen, but by cheap. Yeah, I can tell. I really respect that about you. But when you look at it, it's like, well, why would
I crucify her? Like she was trying to do the best thing at the time, and yes it wasn't the right thing, but she didn't have the tools and resources that I have now. And anytime spent feeling guilty or feeling like crap about these things that we do is literally wasted. So that why bother ruminating on something like that when we can go, wow, I know better, and when you know better, you can do better and that's pretty cool.
Absolutely. Yeah, So it was life changing, honestly, So thank you, welcome to the family. But yeah, so at that point I hustled, and I hustled hard. I did anything I could to increase my income. So I returned to work and I got a promotion at work to earn more money. I got another role sort of adjacent to my current role that I'm bringing more money and also increase my career progression pathway. I picked up other casual work, so
casual like academic work at the university. I opened my own private practice so I could earn more money on the day off and on my weekend. Winded up working six days a week, which was lot with a young child at home.
That's chaos. And so did you take that twelve months of leave or was your maternity leave cut short because of the dimas.
Cut short because I needed to earn some money.
To get stuff done. You're like, hold on, hold on, hold on to give my child the best possible life, it doesn't necessarily mean I have to be home for twelve months exactly.
And like with all those debt repayments, I just had to, like there was no other way forward. Really, I couldn't budget my way out of that. And then in my spare time, I started doing things like any spad minute I had, I was doing online surveys.
My she's a real convert. I love this.
I was doing transcriptions and things that you could listen to and type away what that was, and like everything through shot back, so any dollars I could squeeze, and everything was just going straight into debt repayments, and I was able to smash down that debt probably within twelve months or so.
I'm so proud of you. I am so excited. That is so cool.
Yeah, it was. It was really cool to see that, like the power of small things. In the past, I thought I could there's no point saving a dollar or two here and there, And look what it did. It all sort of snowballed and cleared my death that she was amazing. And then through that it's almost like I was forced to learn how to save. So I was really careful that once the debt was cleared, I was putting all of that into savings to grow. And it grew, and I got to the point where I had my
own personal emergency fund. I had set one up for our family. We had a decent amount of savings, and it got to the point where we could start investing too, So we started investing in shares. We leveraged some equity in our house and got an investment property.
Who are you? I know? Past? You was like, I don't know her, I've never met her.
I just never thought that would be possible. And that's all just been since twenty twenty one, you know, after two?
Can I be really pervy and ask how was your relationship with your husband during this journey? Because you mentioned before he's like as impulsive as you were, Like you both had the same spending habits, and he's a bit
adhd from what you've said. That can be a really confronting conversation to have when one of you has kind of like gone down the money rabbit hole, but maybe the other's not ready to join or like, this is a confronting conversation because it can be really challenging to be like, hey, husband, so we're actually not doing as well as we thought we were. It can feel like a personal attack. How did that go?
I actually laughed because when I told him I was doing this, he groaned and was like, oh, no, you're gonna say I'm your worst money habit.
But he's not no king, no king, we know we won't say that though.
It's all rude, No he's so open to talk about these things. And I think we've never shied away from
money talk or how any stress about it. Like I said, I've sort of inherited that from my parents, that abundance mindset, And even though we were in this tricky place, it wasn't that stressful because I could see possibility in it too, And so me and my husband are really opened to talking about these things, and we set up our money dates and we did all that, and we still do that just to realign because sometimes, like I said, he is a bit spendye and he line if he don't
ever think to check the bank account, which is tap away and have fun. And he's very open for us to sort of readjust and realign and recalibrate what we're doing with our money, just as a little check in. So yeah, it was never a strain on a relationship, which I think. I'm just so lucky to have him be as supportive as he is. And he saw that I was on my way with this thing and he sort of just handed over the reins and he's like, you get it, get it clean, do it.
I love that because sometimes you hear, oh, yeah, I was hustling really hard, and my partner really wasn't on board, so he was still spending. Well, I'm like trying to get ahead, and that can create massive amounts of friction. Like the number one reason people get divorced is because of money, and that doesn't mean that was your reality. But I was like, let's just bring this up because it is so refreshing to hear. No, my husband was so about it doesn't mean he has to change who
he is. He just has to be open to the conversations and well, what are we going to do to put ourselves in a better position. And I'm assuming he wants the best for your kids as well, so like, good deal, Yeah he does.
Now I'm very lucky to have him. I think he's pretty a pretty rare breed in terms of how supportive he is of me and our family. So very lucky. So I knew our next goal was we wanted to grow our family, and we were in a really good financial position to do that. And I knew this time around, I was going to reach my goal. I wasn't just going to have twelve months off of my next mat leave. I was going to take the full two years I can't which was very exciting. But so my daughter arrived
in twenty twenty four. Yeah, and at that same time, actually, my husband was offered this new role and I sat down and did the numbers, and I realized if he took this role, the increase in his salary would actually offset my reduction in salary over my map.
How good, yep, yep.
So I could use half pay to get us through most of the way in our savings and it would be covered and we wouldn't have any change to our lifestyle. The catch was that his new job was in a rural town. We live in a major city, so it was a big lifestyle change. And I realized that that meant we could also rent our house out in the city for an additional income stream you could, which seemed very clever to me, and so we decided to go
for it. And the great thing is we hadn't even accounted for our cost of living in a rural town is so much lower.
Yep.
Absolutely, we're living teacher housing, so our rent is one hundred and forty dollars a week. Stop it. We don't pay for some of our bills, and there's no shopping center here, there's no Uber eats. There's nothing. You know, our days consist of playing at the path, going for walks and splashing in the river. And that is so.
And at that point in time, I'm just assuming some of these things, so please correct me. But like you've got a three year old at that point and a newborn, you're kind of like, well, it's about quality time anyway, Like we can spend all of this time together and my husband's going to be making way more money and we'll be more financially secure. Like that's a win for everybody.
It was amazing. It came at the best time, and we realized if we did this yet, it's such a magical, idyllic season with the children in slow paced life, that we would actually come back to the city and be in a better financial situation and we could actually make it into our forever home. Like I said, we bought our first home. My husband was still a student. We're out growing it pretty fast, so we took the leap, and when my daughter was eight weeks old, we moved to a rural town.
Perfect no, no, I know what's coming now, and tell me.
So she was ten weeks old when we start to have some issues and we just moved six hours away from health service, and she had these episodes which looked like seizures. And she had some developmental issues, so she had low muscle tone, she was very floppy and very sleepy. She had problems with her eyes, she wasn't interactive, she didn't smile, and it turns out she was actually classed
as a high risk for cerebral palsy. So she's got muscle tone issues, she has vision difficulties, and a few months later, when we started solids, it turns out she also had several severe food allergies.
Oh no, that's same.
Do you do what?
You didn't deserve that? On top of all of these.
It was a lot. So we spent a lot of time having to travel between our small town and our major city six hours away for all of her appointments pediatrician, allogist, ophthalmologist, physioot dietitian, and we had applied for NDAs, but there was a so it took over twelve months to receive a package for her. So everything we had to do for her, all her therapies, all her you know, any equipment she needed, paid for out of pocket.
Yeah, and at that point they're always saying the earlier the intervention, the better, Like you need to get on this, like we cannot wait. And so you, as a parent, you're like, great, well, I'm just going to have to fund this. I can't wait until funding comes in or when the NDIS is ready for this, like because the earlier the intervention, the better the outcomes. So what else are you meant to do?
Absolutely, And like I said, it was just such a privilege to have that money sitting there, and so I could give that to her and give her those crucial first twelve months of early intervention. I just feel so sad for parents that were at the mercy of NDIS and had to wait, because I honestly don't know what her life would be like now had we missed those
crucial months of early intervention. And she she's amazing. Now, she's doing so great, to the point where she responded so well to her therapies they took her off the at risk category and now she's just being monitored.
But for now she's so she doesn't have CP. Like we're just hanging out. She was just joking, she was just having a little bit of a drama time.
Yeah, yeah, So I just feel so lucky because my therapist had explained to me that those children who don't get the early intervention can get much worse over time, whereas if you get in early sort of rewire the pathways to the brain, it sort of overcomes that difficulty. So yeah, I'm just so grateful.
Oh a little icon. I'm so happy. I was like, where's this gonna go? Like, you know so hard?
She's incredible.
Oh I love that for you guys. That makes me so so happy. And so now you guys are back to not square one because like we have a heap more financial literacy. But tell me about where that emergency fund is and how you're getting your finances under control again.
So yeah, I had to think of how to get an income. We weren't finished with living in our rural town. We do love it here, and I can't do my job here. I need to be in a major city to do my job. So I got a bit creative with what to do because I didn't want to have to put my children in care and spend money on childcare and then work. So I wanted to do something I could do from home, and that's when I joined in mlam I don't think.
Oh my gosh, I was like, this is going to be so good. Sorry, how dare you like tempt me with a good time? I know.
Sorry. I've always wanted to be a teacher actually growing up and in my career I sort of gravitate towards teaching and training. And at the minute, there's a teacher shortage, so the government is pouring a lot of money into getting people through a teaching qualification into the classroom. So I started my Masters of Teaching and I applied for all the scholarships, all the grants, all of that. So I'm essentially getting paid to study now and I get
to stay home with my kids. I'm going to make it through my two years of that leave and I get a qualification at the end, and I just study at night. And it's working really well. I'm enjoying it so much.
Stop it, stop it, stop it. That is so strategic. Like, sorry, and you said you were a bee. Sit down. I haven't even finished asking you a questions.
I even thought about because of the hex and stuff and the considerations. But the courses are heavily subsidized at the minute, and like ticket to masters is really cheap. Yeah, what a master's for what it is, which is my previous master's course. And I knew my HEX reduction would likely come in in the future, so it's going to drop down any way. May as well just top it
up a little bit. I'll still be in a better off HEX position, but with this additional qualification, and then I end up in a career that has a lot of career progression opportunity, and in future I get to have school holidays with my children, which I'm obsessed with. Stop it.
This is so exciting, and I just wish I could go back to pre and like the day that you got your thirty thousand dollar credit card and just be like, Hey, did you know the one day you're going to be like investing, you're going to move rurally, like you'll be getting a second master's degree, and you're going to be slaying at life. You'd be like, No, that's not my journey?
Who is she?
I love it.
Like you said, we are sort of starting from scratch, but this time I know what I'm doing, so I can see the pathway forward and it's not as overwhelming as it was, and I know we'll get there. We've just got to adjust some timelines.
I this is so iconic.
I love it.
So at the moment, you're not earning an income because you're on your two years of maternity leave. What does your husband do for work and how much does he earn?
So he is an assistant principle and he's on one hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
Perfect, And then tell me a little bit more about like your big money goals. Obviously it's to increase your education and get back into the workforce at some point. But I feel like we've already ticked off a number of goals. We've got our first home, it's currently being rented out. You also have an investment property you started investing, like what the plan financially, So we've got a few I guess in the short term.
Next year we want to take our first big overseas holiday as a family. My husband's from overseas, so we would love for our children to meet their great grandma before she's too old and just sort of reconnect with their heritage a little bit. I would love to grow at our share portfolio, and our big one is to get into our forever home, so that's sort of a longer term goal.
Totally. And is that something that you're prioritizing right now? You're like, Okay, we're going to get our emergency fund and all of these like short term things sorted, but one day we will step up into a bigger property.
Yeah exactly right. Yeah, we just focus on getting back to where we were, and then there are goals moving forward.
Yeah, and when I'm just like so pervy about all of this stuff, so I do apologize. But when it comes to that next home, is that something where you'll probably sit down and start saving another deposit or do you think that there might be enough equity in your first home and your investment property to hopefully leverage you into a situation where you don't have to like start start from scratch when it comes to the property ladder.
Yeah, I definitely think we could leverage some equity, but I would like.
To save a bit as well. Yeah, safety, I feel like it's a good idea. All right, you have worked so hard to achieve everything that you guys have achieved, but I need to know how are you protecting it? Do you have personal insurances set up?
I do, Actually I only got them sorted a couple of weeks ago. But yeah, given that I had to put all my other financial goals on the back burner while I built up my emergency fund, I thought, I may as well get my insurances sorted, and that way, I'm putting myself in a better financial position through that way.
Why did you decide, all right, well, I need to set up my personal insurances.
I just felt like it would give me more stability and more comfort, and the fact that I have children and more assets now compared to when I was younger just felt like the right time to sort of square that away and make sure that everything's protected and everyone.
Is safe totally. But also so I'm like always talking to people who are like Victoria, I have assets and children now, life is so expensive. Where did you start? Did you just do your insurances yourself? Did you just like go online and set them up? Or did you see someone? What was the process?
I went through Skywealth?
Oh okay, Queen, just like a little plug for Phil's team.
Absolutely, they were incredible. They made everything so easy. I'm not very good at like paperwork and returning forms and things I get a bit needy atable, but they were super helpful and they made the whole process really easy.
I'm obsessed. All right. Well, I mean that's really great because this episode was brought to you by sky Wealth, which is kind of hilarious. And I'm with sky Wealth, as is I feel like most of our community because we talk about them and love them. But I was not expecting you to say I'm with sky Wealth. I didn't know that at all. So what a perfect outcome. I know it wasn't planned at all. No, it actually wasn't.
But moving on, I want to know, all right, let's go to a really quick break because I want to ask you more about your share port folio, more about like maybe existing debts and what those mortgages actually look like, and then best and worst money habits that are not yours, buch. So let's go to a break and we'll see you on the flip side. All right, guys, we are back, and I want to talk about your share portfolio. So you said I've started investing, and that is so flipping exciting.
How how did you jump into your first investment? Because I feel like investing is overwhelming, but the hardest part is doing your first trade. How did you do it?
Well? Being a shoes on the money, a convert I signed up for Chasy's got my free ten dollars, popped that in and just sat with that for a couple of weeks, and then slowly added a little bit more and just sort of built up wherever I could find a bit of money until now it's not scary, it's exciting.
That is so fun. And what type of level of investment have we got in our portfolio at this point in time.
It's not very biger than in it, so to met We've got five one hundred and ninety nine dollars.
Do you mean not big? At the moment?
I'd like, you know, you hear money stories where they've got these amazing portfolios.
So that's my goal one totally, Like you could have one hundred grand dinner share portfolio, but like sis, sit down, you've got your first home, you've got an investment property, you've got two children, your husband's and assistant principal. I think you're doing fine to have five grand in shares. That queen step back because like, yeah, I will enable your purchases, but I won't let you bring yourself down and that's not going to happen. That's not going to happen,
thank you. That is very exciting. So did you once you had your first ten dollars and you're making your first trade, did you pick an ETF? Did you pick a direct share? If so, how did you make that decision?
I picked an ETF Again, I just sort of went with things that had been discussed on the podcast in terms of having a core satellite approach.
Do you want to be on the podcast because it sounds like you could like literally run.
It for me.
At this point, I just be quoting you all day. It's good. That's what I do all day. I just repeat myself. So why not?
So? Yeah, I picked an Australian ETF, like an ASX two hundred, and then an American ETF as well.
In tech fun. So we've got a little bit of diversification there, which is really exciting. Now, tell me about debts. We know of two debts that you currently have, but they are good debts, not bad debts. The first one you took on was your first home with your husband. How much did you purchase that property for? Tell me all of the nitty gritty.
Yes, so our house we bought for five hundred thousand dollars in twenty eighteen. That mortgage is currently sitting at five hundred and forty eight thousand, nine hundred and twelve, just because we pulled some of that equity out. But it's currently worth seven hundred and twenty nine thousand dollars. Very nice, And it's been rented at the minute for five hundred dollars a week.
Oh good rental yield on a five hundred and forty eight thousand dollars mortgage. That's nice. Yeah, it is nice.
Yeah, I think the yield is four point seventy five percent.
Yeah on that. In my head, I was like, that's about five percent. That's a good deal. Yeah.
And then so our other house, our investment property, we bought that in twenty twenty three for four hundred and fifty six thousand, five hundred and fifteen dollars.
Five hundred and fifteen dollars. That's very specific.
I love that we have only been paying the interest on that mortgage at the minute, so that's still sitting as it is, but that is now worth seven hundred and forty thousand dollars. What and yeah, I know it's it's been amazing. And then the it's rented for six fifty a week.
That's even better. Rented yield. Yeah, seven point four to two percent on that sorry, and you're like, oh, yeah, I think I'm a bee. And you're sitting on like basically half a million dollars worth of equity and have really great rental yields on both of these properties, and you're like, oh, no, I wish I had a bigger investment portfolio.
You do, I know, but it feels like because there's a lot of debt sitting on those two which.
Feels okay, yeah, Like and I mean you're probably in nearly a million dollars worth debt. Fantastic, But if we sold both of those properties, you got five hundred cash. That's a lot, And like, we don't want to do that because we like the rental yield. But with five hundred thousand dollars worth of equity, we could absolutely get you into your forever home. I mean, it's probably not
an ideal timing right now. So I'd be like, look, just put that off as long as you possibly can, because the equity is going to grow and your rental yield will start paying off more of those mortgages, be more financially stable. But go, yes, you can save, but I don't think you'll need to for your next property.
Yeah, that's exciting to you.
That is so cool. Yeah, oh my god, how did you make a decision about that investment property? Because I'm telling you right now, if someone could guarantee me that rental yield, I'd like take my money. That's fine. I'd love that mortgage. So how did you decide, oh, that's a good location to buy. Did you use a bias agent or did you guys make the decision.
Actually, we came across a financial advisor that's sort of specializes in property. We actually were going to go ahead with doing it a long time ago and COVID hit and we panicked and pulled out of the deal, and then looking back at the house that we were going to buy, we were like, whoa, that went up a lot as stressful as out. So this time we absolutely just have to pull a trigger on it, even if we feel uncomfortable. And I'm so glad we did, because yeah,
the scariest thing is doing it. Now that we'reing it, it feels fine.
So yeah, I love that. And how did you know to trust this financial advisor slash buyer's agent? Like where does that coming? Because I feel like this space can be really overwhelming and daunting, especially if you've not come from a position of like high levels of financial literacy. So we sort of found them while I still wasn't very financially literate, which is not great because I probably didn't do my due diligence and check on much at all. So really it's just come down to luck that they
were actually legitimate and they worked really well. But in future, would strongly recommend to anyone not to do that approach that I just sort of, you know, let's just do
it and it'll all work out fine. I mean, it's not the worst thing in the world, but yes, I get a little bit stressed when people say they've used a buy this agent to buy an investment property, because there's just so many people in the industry who don't know what they're talking about, and like, you don't know what you don't know because these people, especially people in real estate, and like, if you're listening to this and you're in real estate, I'm sure you're a delightful human.
But we all know there are many snakes in real estate, and they're so good at talking, and they are so good at selling the dream, and it drives me nuts because they'll promise a brilliant rental yield and then they sell you something in a housing estate that never increases in value. You don't end up with any equity, and your rental yield is dismal, and they go, well, that's the market being off. So sorry, like because there's no real ramifications because like you know, past performance is not
a reliable predict or a fusion performance. They can promise you anything exactly.
You know, like I said, we've just been incredibly lucky.
And I love this. So talk to me.
What do you think your best money habit is. I think my best money habits It wasn't a specific habit. I think it's more my attitude and my mindset towards money, so that abundance mindset, because I feel like it's laid a strong foundation to build everything else on top of. Like, my money habits changed depending on where I am with my finances, but at the base of that is always that I view money as this tool that can get me places, or do things for us, or give us freedom.
And that's allowed, like I said, me and my husband to speak comfortably about it, or for me to start discussing money with my friends, which has you know, been able to set some of them in the right pathway too. So yeah, I think that's probably my best habit.
I couldn't agree more your entire attitude throughout this. I'm like, I wish everybody in the community embraced it in the same way. I also wish everybody in the community had a husband that was as supportive. We're not going to make him our worst money habit, so shout out to him. What is your worst money habit?
Though?
Oh it's so basic.
I still really struggle with my budgeting and cash flow, and I have tried so many different iterations of how to budget or track the money in different ways and like you know, written or in an app, and like, I am not a freak in the sheets. My Excel spreadsheets are very basic and they just don't seem to work.
It always gets to the point where I'm shuffling money back and forwards between my savings and my spending, which is really frustrating because then we can't reach our financial goals as well, because we're not consistently putting things away because I just need to shuffle it back and forward a bit too much. But I keep working on that.
No, no, no, I can fix that easy. I'll just give you access to my money masterclass. I've literally done it all. I'm a psycho. So like when you said you're not a freaking the sheets, I was like, where are we going with this? And then you're talking about spreadshets and I was like, well, girl, I am, I'm a psycho. I have not just built a spreadsheet that works.
I have automated the entire thing. So all you do is put your budget in and then it will tell you what needs to go into which bank account at which time. And if you're like, well, actually, Victoria, our income comes in on a fortnightly basis, don't worry, queen. Just change your setting and it'll be weekly, fortnightly, monthly, like it could even be annually if you want it
to be. And I am so proud of that thing and the fact that I coded it for basically nine months, Like let's not talk about how long it took me. Let's just talk about how good the outcome is. But that has literally changed the money story of thousands of people. And it's my favorite thing ever because like it literally automates it for you. So I'm going to send you that and that I can fix that. You don't have that bad money happen anymore. Bam, done, We're done, Thank.
You, Thank you so much. That would be incredible, because yeah, I just can't seem to get it together.
Now you've got it, I'm so excited. And to be honest, the way it's structured would work really well for you guys as well, because you'd pick the duel version. So I've got two versions of it if you're a single income household and then you've got your duel, but I would use the duel one and just mark yours down as zero just because you're on Matt Lee. But then you don't have to fix it up at another time. But then joint costs like kids and savings goals and
infesting goals and budgets for your first home. I even built in And this is like not me trying to blow my own horn. I just think it's a really cool thing to build in a mortgage repayment calculator on one of the tabs. So like if you put your loans in and your interest rate and then like have a bit of a fiddle with it and go, well, what does fifty dollars a week, look like. In addition, it will tell you how many years it cuts off your loan.
That's amazing.
I'm just excited about that. I'm just a maths girl at heart, and we're going to stop talking about it because you guys might start thinking I'm a nerd and couldn't have that. But that is so exciting money direst And I'm really sad that we're running out of time. If there was one thing that you could say to somebody who's in the position you were in. So they feel like they're drowning in debt. They've just started listening
to money story. It's all completely overwhelming. What would you tell them to do?
I don't know. I guess starts small, like you say, from little things big things, and that's truly how it started. Being able to put a couple of dollars here and there into things was the way to start, and then and then it just grows from there. So I think everyone can do what I've done. I'm not special.
I just I got the.
Information I never had and I applied it and anyone can do that. So it's very exciting.
I love it. And before we go, I need to revisit your grade. You said you were a B. Queen, Tell me what does it take to get to an A, because I'm just looking at this going I don't know what more she can do. All she said was that she was bad at spreadsheets, and that doesn't make you bad at money. So where's this bee come from? How do we get to an A? Well?
Like I said, I would like to fix my budgeting and cash flow, and I think given that we're starting over again, I would feel better about my grade once I've sort of gotten back to a position where I feel more comfortable in and then can grow our finances and grow our goals from there.
I won't argue with that. I think that is very fair money, Dirist, It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you, getting to know more about your family, your money habits, what you've done well and maybe what you haven't done so well. It's been really ie opening. But I know the community is going to love listening to this episode, So thank you so much. Thank you for having me, and also a very huge thank you
to skuy Wealth for making this episode possible. I'll chuck a whole heap of information about them how to get in contact, what they do, how they do it in the show notes for you to check out did buy shared on?
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